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Relatives of US hostages visit Bogota, Caracas

The US is willing to look at any "concrete proposal" from the Colombian Marxist guerrillas holding three American hostages since 2003, the US ambassador to Colombia said on Wednesday.

"We will look at any concrete proposal from the people who have custody of these three hostages," Ambassador William Brownfield told reporters in Bogota, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Brownfield met on Wednesday with the families of Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves, US government contractors who were seized after rebels shot down their plane during an anti-drug mission in February 2003.

The families met Tuesday in Caracas with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a mediator in Colombia's hostage crisis, who said the government of US President George W. Bush could be of help in the matter.

"We're the closest we've ever been to getting our son back,"' a sober-looking Lynne Stansell, mother of hostage Keith, said about the interview with the Venezuelan leader.

"Chavez told us he was doing this as a humanitarian gesture, not for political reasons," she said.

Wearing a yellow ribbon lapel pin inlaid with a US flag and the names of the three US defense contractors, she spoke in Bogota.

She and several other relatives of the hostages came to South America for a series of meetings on efforts to secure their loved ones' release.

On Wednesday, they met with an adviser to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who was to see the group yesterday in New York, and visited the US embassy in Bogota, where photographs of the three Northrop Grumman Corp staffers sit on display under the caption "You are not forgotten."

The 17,000-strong FARC wants the Colombian government to release 500 FARC prisoners in exchange for 45 hostages, including the Americans and politician Ingrid Betancourt, who holds both French and Colombian citizenships.

Uribe has rejected the guerrillas' demands that he create a demilitarized zone to negotiate a deal.
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